The teenager with a spine made of rope!
How £140,000 pioneering surgery has made Ella’s twisted back straight again
A TEENAGE girl has been given a new spine made with rope in a remarkable operation that will allow her to carry on her sporting career.
Ella Tomlinson, 14, plays hockey and netball for her county, but was forced to stop when she developed severe curvature of her spine.
Her parents raised £140,000 to take her to the US to have the pioneering operation, called vertebral body tethering (VBT), where a piece of nylon rope is run down the full length of the spine.
Screws are then inserted into each section of the spine to help produce the correct tension on the rope and correct the curve.
Ella, from Leominster, Herefordshire, had the operation in March and is now walking again and doing physiotherapy.
It is hoped that she will make a full recovery and will be able to resume her sporting career.
Her family noticed that her spine was not straight about 18 months ago. A doctor diagnosed scoliosis, which is an abnormal twisting of the spine. It was initially hoped that she would have the VBT operation on the NHS, but this was put on hold while the health rationing body NICE looked into it.
Her father Steve, who owns a steel construction company with his wife Amanda, remortgaged his home and cashed in his pension to pay for the operation. Mr Tomlinson said: ‘We are thrilled at the progress Ella has made already. We knew that she had to have the operation done now as she only had a window of opportunity while she was still growing and before her spine started to stiffen.’